Please read the article and then fill in the gaps with some of the following words:
- Although
- Anyway
- As well as
- Because
- Because of this
- But
- Consequently
- Despite the fact that
- Due to the fact that
- However
- Since
- So
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- Yet
President Obama will take a 5% salary cut in support of federal workers who are going to be furloughed. officials said Wednesday. The president's base salary is $400,000 a year; 5% adds up to $20,000.
………………………………………………………… Congress sets the president's salary by law, his actual paycheck cannot be reduced.- ………………………………………………………… Obama will have to honor the voluntary pay cut by returning money to the Treasury.
Obama's move is retroactive to March 1, the first day the ongoing $85 billion in budget cuts known as the "sequester" began to take effect.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter …………………………………………… Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones will give up part of their pay ........................................................... about 700,000 civilian workers will have to take 14 days of mandatory unpaid leave in the coming months ............................................... the sequester.
Said one official: "The salary for the president, as with members of Congress, is set by law and cannot be changed. -- …………………………………………………………, the president has decided he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester."
………………………………………………………… lawmakers' salaries are exempted from the sequester. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, who is up for re-election in 2014, will return a portion of his $174,000 salary to the Treasury. "We need to be making responsible cuts wherever we can, and there is no reason that members of Congress shouldn't feel the pinch like everyone else," he said in a statement.
adapted from USA Today
